Facial appearance is of prime importance to most individuals, and is greatly enhanced by the appearance of clean white teeth. This applies both to natural tooth enamel and veneers. Conversely, facial appearance is greatly degraded by stain discoloration that develops over time from the cumulative effects of frequent and repeated exposures to staining substances, despite normal regular brushings.
Modern lifestyles, including increased public travel trends, have tended to intensify the exposure of many to teeth-staining substances such as nicotine, coffee and many other beverages and foods. Due to lack of convenient facilities, often the period between regular brushings can extend to as much as 16 hours or more. Consequently, especially for the appearance-conscious, there is an unfulfilled need for a convenient way to remove these unwanted residuals from at least the frontal areas of the teeth as promptly as possible after each of numerous incidents of daily exposures between regular brushings and to maintain the polish and luster of both natural tooth enamel and dental veneers.
There is a demand in the marketplace for a tooth whitening dentifrice that can be used at home by the consumer on both natural tooth enamel and dental veneers which is safe and easy to use.
Dental veneers have, for many years, been employed to enhance facial appearance and particularly the look and regularity of front teeth that are visible. Dental veneers (sometimes called porcelain veneers or dental porcelain laminates) are wafer-thin, custom-made shells of tooth-colored materials designed to cover the front surface of teeth to improve appearance. These shells are bonded to the front of the teeth changing their color, shape, size or length.
Dental veneers can be made from porcelain or from resin composite materials. Porcelain veneers resist stains better than resin veneers and better mimic the light reflecting properties of natural teeth. Resin veneers are thinner and require removal of less of the tooth surface before placement. Generally, the best choice of veneer material for is determined by the patient in consultation with their dentist.
Veneers are routinely used to fix:                Teeth that are discolored—either because of root canal treatment; stains from tetracycline or other drugs, excessive fluoride or other causes; or the presence of large resin fillings that have discolored the tooth        Teeth that are worn down        Teeth that are chipped or broken        Teeth that are misaligned, uneven, or irregularly shaped (for example, have craters or bulges in them)        Teeth with gaps between them (to close the space between these teeth)        
Generally to prepare a tooth for a veneer, a dentist will remove about ½ millimeter of enamel from the tooth surface, and then bond or otherwise adhere to the remaining surface of the tooth the veneer material.
Veneers offer the following advantages:                They provide a natural tooth appearance.        Gum tissue tolerates porcelain well.        Porcelain veneers are stain resistant.        The color of a porcelain veneer can be selected such that it makes dark teeth appear whiter.        Veneers offer a conservative approach to changing a tooth's color and shape-veneers generally don't require the extensive shaping prior to the procedure that crowns do, yet offer a stronger, more aesthetic alternative to bonding.        
The downside to dental veneers include:                The process is not reversible.        Veneers are more costly than composite resin bonding.        Veneers are usually not repairable should they chip or crack.        Because enamel has been removed, a tooth may become more sensitive to hot and cold foods and beverages.        Veneers may not exactly match the color of one's other teeth. Also, the veneer's color generally cannot be altered once in place        Though not likely, veneers can dislodge and fall off.        Teeth with veneers can still experience decay, possibly necessitating full coverage of the tooth with a crown.        
Veneers generally last between 5 and 10 years. After this time, the veneers would need to be replaced.
Even though porcelain veneers resist stains, certain stain-causing foods and beverages for example, coffee, tea or red wine, can discolor the veneer. Similarly, the surface of the veneer can become marred or otherwise not reflect light in a pleasing manner so that the appearance of the veneer needs to be restored by polishing.
All toothpastes help remove surface stains because they have mild abrasives. Some whitening toothpastes contain gentle polishing or chemical agents that provide additional stain removal effectiveness. Whitening toothpastes can help remove surface stains only and do not contain bleach; over-the-counter and professional whitening products contain hydrogen peroxide (a bleaching substance) that helps remove stains on the tooth surface as well as stains deep in the tooth. However, commerically available toothpastes do not contain any polishing agent that would permit a veneer surface to be polished to restore its original luster. A patient cannot polish the veneer surface at home or on a regular basis inasmuch as the current technology requires that such polishing be done by a dentist in their offices.
Diamond is the hardest material known and is commonly used as a superabrasive for removing excess materials. Diamond superabrasives have been commercially available in a number of mesh sizes. For example, diamond saws typically incorporate diamond particles having a U.S. mesh size of 18 (about 1 mm) to 60 (about 0.25 mm). Polishing applications typically require diamond fines down to about 0.1 micron. Until recently, diamond particles smaller than about 100 nm were not commercially available.
Diamond micron powders are commonly made by pulverizing waste diamond grains that are not otherwise suitable for ultrafine polishing where nanometer scale smoothness is desired. However, typical pulverized diamond particles may include sharp corners and irregular shapes which are not suitable for polishing of surfaces which require smoothness and luster to remain. Thus, they would generally be unsuitable for use as a tooth polish or veneer polish. Recently, nanoparticles of diamond have become commercially available. Such nanodiamond particles are commonly formed by explosion where the graphite is compressed with a shock wave and the dynamite (e.g. TNT and RDX mixture) itself is converted to nanodiamond during less than a microsecond at high pressure and temperature. Nanodiamonds so formed are typically smaller than 10 nm (e.g. 5 nm) and tend to have a very narrow size distribution, i.e. from about 4 nm to about 10 nm. More importantly, the surface of these nanodiamonds contains diamond or diamond-like carbon, such as bucky balls (C60), layered shells, carbon nanotubes, and amorphous carbon which makes these nanodiamonds extremely hard without sharp corners. Such nanodiamond has been used as abrasives for the ultra-fine polishing of hard materials (e.g. gems), but there has been no use of them to permit the polishing of natural tooth enamel or dental veneer.
Aggregated diamond nanorods, or ADNRs, are a nanocrystalline form of diamond. These are synonymous with the more conventional (and perhaps more justified) term “nanodiamond”. Nanodiamond may be produced by compression of graphite and is much harder than bulk diamond, which makes it the hardest known material with an isothermal bulk modulus of 491 gigapascals (GPa). A conventional diamond has a modulus of 442-446 GPa. These results may be inferred from X-ray diffraction data, which also indicated that ADNRs are 0.3% denser than regular diamond. ADNRS can have a hardness and Young's modulus comparable to that of natural diamond, but with superior wear resistance.